It was kinda odd but we went on talking for 15 minutes after the interview finished, and he asked me all the interesting stuff I thought everyone might want to hear. Like, working with Steam, my thoughts on C++, why I use Java (because I'm an idiot), why don't I do 3D games (because I'm not clever enough), why don't I use Unity (because I'm too old, stupid and lazy to learn anything new), what's Java performance like (half as fast as C++), when would I want to use C++ (to get on consoles), why don't I want to get on consoles (because the business side of it is just so awful that I'd rather do something useful with my life), etc, etc.

I meant it like as if you were joking: "yeah, in the cut off part we solved most world problems" - but I guess the suggestion that you'd make stuff up just for fun, would be a bit far stretched. Sorry for the derailment.

Hi, appreciate more people! Σ ♥ = ¾Learn how to award medals... and work your way up the social rankings!

No, really - we genuinely did talk about all the interesting stuff after he stopped recording! Bizarre. But I think he's very young and inexperienced in the ways of interviewing yet (only 14!) so not a bad effort at all. Poor guy was very nervous. I could talk the hind legs off of an Arcturan megadonkey.

"if somebody is investing their time in you and you are investing your time in them, you really want to finish something other wise you let each other down"

This, I think is one of the most insightful things I have heard in a long time. I have always known it but you forget how much having someone to work with does. Very few people are truly self motivated. I think that this really is the best advice you could give to someone who is trying to program games.

Even fewer people are actually talented in all of programming, art, sound, music, game design, production, website construction, writing English*, business and marketing.

Cas

* Outside of China, English is the language you need to be an expert at to get taken credibly by the US and UK, which is where over 50% of the actual market is. It helps that most European countries noticed this a while back.

I do agree with that.However, it is undeniable that some people need less hard work to master one skill than other people.

And of course there are physical limitations/boosts.

Nicolo Paganini was a hell of a violinist not only because he practiced, but also because (argueably) he had Marfan syndrome (which made his fingers larger and thinner). And if you have Parkinson's disease you probably won't be a very good painter.

But, apart from that, I really believe anything is achievable if you practice enough.

Talent also enhances the speed you learn stuff in. I play Guitar with all my love for about 1 and a half year. I think I'm not that good to start a band (well main reson to learn guitar is to play covers of game music xD). A friend of mine just HAS talent. He plays like a Pro and only plays like a half year.

Of course you can learn a lot by brute forcing it, but that makes not sense to me. Why would I but myself to work for something I'm just not good at. I'm good at programming and a like it. I think the "like it" part is the most important part. If you do something and you do it all day long without even noticing what time it is you probatly should go with that.

Drawing is a good example. You can tell yourself all day long that you learned by hard. But go on DeviantArt and all your self-esteem is gone for good xD (Altough I get pushed by better work then mine...). Like Riven said. There is a certain max level your can achievement if you don't have that much talent. I assume I never get to the point where I play like Jimi Hendrix but that's okay xD

This is great stuff for self-help books and such, but we all have things that we're good at and things that we're not. We might be mistaken about what these things are (though lack of exposure and practice) but that doesn't really change anything. And IHMO this is a good thing.

My personal take on it is that absolutely is limited, whatsoever, in what they can achieve, if they put the effort in to be good at it; at least as far as cognitive and dextrous skills are concerned. I've seen this countless times. What talent appears to be is the speed at which we progress from beginner to expert.

As for myself, I have little talent at games design, and I've almost deliberately fossilised my talents for what some programmers perceive to be the most important aspect programming ("being able to pick up new languages quickly is soooooo important and any good programmer blah blah blah") in favour of what I consider being the most important aspect of programming (actually being very good at one language).

In another 10 years I hope to be pretty good at games design. Helps that I'm doing it for a living now.

Its not about which hammer you use, its the amount of care you put into building that bird house that determines how good it turns out to be and how effective it will be at attracting birds to nest in it.

Whether 'care' translates to talent or hard work... I think someone with talent puts in hard work where someone with no talent will just slack off trying to cut corners.

Yeah, you could do hard work. But, it surely helps to be around talented people if you want success. I mean, look at customer service. Not everyone wants to learn how to communicate with people. However, some just are better at speaking to people than others. Same thing with programming. It does take a lot of hard work. You can spend 2 years learning Java and master it to the same strength someone with talent learned in a month. I believe people have talents at certain tasks, and can grasp concepts faster than others at certain things. Learning the hard way is a great experience, but I don't believe that you'd ever get as far as those who are naturally gifted.

Hard work is nice if you have the time, but the amount of time you'll take trying to be Bach, Albert Einstein, Picasso, and Stephen Hawking would probably take you an entire lifetime. Talent speeds up hard work by making it easier. I find it better just to surround myself with the talented and listen to them. Sometimes you are able to pick up things a whole lot faster that way.

Yeah, you could do hard work. But, it surely helps to be around talented people if you want success. I mean, look at customer service. Not everyone wants to learn how to communicate with people. However, some just are better at speaking to people than others. Same thing with programming. It does take a lot of hard work. You can spend 2 years learning Java and master it to the same strength someone with talent learned in a month. I believe people have talents at certain tasks, and can grasp concepts faster than others at certain things. Learning the hard way is a great experience, but I don't believe that you'd ever get as far as those who are naturally gifted.

Hard work is nice if you have the time, but the amount of time you'll take trying to be Bach, Albert Einstein, Picasso, and Stephen Hawking would probably take you an entire lifetime. Talent speeds up hard work by making it easier. I find it better just to surround myself with the talented and listen to them. Sometimes you are able to pick up things a whole lot faster that way.

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